MLB playoff reports Houston, LA wrap up divisionals’ crowns

Tuesday

Oct 10, 2017 at 5:38 AMOct 10, 2017 at 5:39 AM

Los Angeles Times

PHOENIX — As the final cutter from Kenley Jansen sizzled past the bat of Arizona slugger Paul Goldschmidt, Dave Roberts disappeared in a succession of bearhugs from his coaches, a group celebration a tactical masterpiece, as the Los Angeles Dodgers swept the Diamondbacks out of a National League division series with a 3-1 victory in Game 3.

Roberts manipulated the game like a marionette, pulling each string with the proper force at the proper time. In a postseason already littered with managers undone by indecision and miscalculation, Roberts offered a rejoinder: At least one man knows what he is doing.

Roberts could not ensure a victory on his own. Cody Bellinger barreled over a dugout railing and blasted a home run. Austin Barnes sent Diamondbacks ace Zack Greinke to the showers with a fifth-inning homer. Yu Darvish struck out seven batters in five innings of one-run baseball, but Roberts opened his bullpen when Darvish lost his control in the sixth inning. The Dodgers survived an 0-for-10 game with runners in scoring position by limiting Arizona to three hits.

The Dodgers completed their first postseason sweep since downing the St. Louis Cardinals in the first round of the 2009 playoffs. They will await the winner of the series between the Chicago Cubs and the Washington Nationals, with Washington facing elimination in Game 4 on Tuesday.

Greinke was not at his best Monday. He had not pitched beyond the fourth inning in his previous three outings. The Dodgers welcomed him to the mound with malice. Chris Taylor worked the count full before hitting a leadoff double into the left-field corner.

After a walk by Corey Seager, Taylor took third base on a flyout. He scored on a groundout by Bellinger. Unable to finish at-bats, Greinke required 29 pitches to complete the inning. Greinke did not generate a swinging strike until his 54th pitch, a slider Darvish swung over to end the second inning.

Darvish had not pitched since Sept. 25. He skipped his final outing of the season. The Dodgers assigned him the third game of this series in deference to his success on the road in 2017. Roberts acknowledged the possibility of rust.

“There's always that chance, but I think he's going to be fired up,” Roberts said. “There are going to be some emotions. He's just got to recoil those emotions and make pitches.”

Darvish did not crumble. His postseason career was brief but checkered: Two starts, two defeats and a 5.40 earned-run average. He aimed to rectify that history. Darvish faced one batter over the minimum on his first turn through Arizona's lineup. The Diamondbacks lacked experience against Darvish — only outfielder J.D. Martinez had more than six at-bats against him.

In the fourth inning, Darvish flabbergasted the heart of Arizona's lineup. He unleashed a 2-and-2 slider that nipped the outside corner to freeze shortstop Ketel Marte. His fastball touched 98 mph before he struck out first baseman Goldschmidt with a slider. Darvish finished the inning with a wicked, two-seam fastball that induced a futile swing by Martinez.

The gap between Darvish and Greinke, in terms of aesthetics, was immense. The actual difference in the game was only one run. Greinke walked five batters in the first four innings but held the Dodgers to six hitless at-bats with runners in scoring position.

Bellinger devised a solution. It was a familiar one, a lightning strike with his lumber, and it erased the bitterness of his two-for-12 start to October.

With two outs in the fifth, Greinke fell behind Bellinger in the count. A 3-and-1 changeup floated across the plate. The crack of Bellinger's bat reverberated through the stadium. The solo shot landed in the left-center field seats.

The two-run lead got halved into the bottom of the inning. Darvish buzzed through the first two batters before hanging two sliders to second baseman Daniel Descalso. Descalso fouled back the first. He crushed the second for a homer, which awakened the crowd and activated the Dodgers bullpen.

Bellinger helped Darvish escape the inning. Bellinger raced to the Dodgers dugout and settled beneath a foul ball lofted by catcher Jeff Mathis. Bellinger kept his eyes on the ball as he rolled over the railing and tumbled into Roberts. His teammates reached to pull Bellinger back to his feet.

Greinke had thrown 104 pitches. Despite his subdued arsenal, he dragged himself through five innings. Manager Torey Lovullo was not satisfied. He sent Greinke out for the sixth. The mistake became obvious after an 0-and-1 fastball to Barnes, who hit a solo shot beyond the left-field fence.

Darvish did not last much longer. Roberts allowed him to bat with a runner on third in the fifth. Darvish grounded out and the runner would be stranded. Back out for the sixth, Darvish clipped pinch-hitter Christian Walker in the helmet with a 94-mph fastball. Roberts jumped up from the dugout and called in Tony Cingrani, who induced a double play to erase Walker.

From there, Roberts conducted a clinic. He allowed Brandon Morrow to face four batters, including left-handed hitter Jake Lamb. Morrow retired them all. Kenta Maeda pitched a spotless eighth. And waiting at the end was Jansen. He finished the job.

NEW YORK — The Indians and Yankees are back to square one, and an anticipated celebration in the visiting clubhouse at Yankee Stadium has been put on ice.

A couple of defensive miscues and a ball that landed fair by no more than an inch or two led to a disastrous second inning for the Indians, who played one of their worst defensive games in recent memory and lost to the New York Yankees 7-3 in Game 4 of the American League Division Series on Monday night.

It evens the series 2-2 after the Indians traveled to New York holding a 2-0 series lead and sets up a decisive Game 5 Wednesday night in Cleveland. Corey Kluber will take the mound for the Indians and CC Sabathia will start for the Yankees.

Trevor Bauer, who started Game 4 for the Indians on short rest, couldn't escape the second inning, though he didn't get much help from the defense behind him.

With one out in the bottom of the second, Starlin Castro lined a ball to the normally sure-handed Giovanny Urshela at third base, who instead had it hit off his shin for an error. A passed ball on Roberto Perez, one of the better defensive catchers in the game, then gave Castro second base.

With two outs, Todd Frazier made it costly, lining a ball that landed on the left-field line, sending chalk into the air, to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead. Bauer then worked Aaron Hicks to a 1-2 count and threw a curveball below the zone. Hicks checked his swing, though Bauer believed he had failed to hold up for what would have been strike three and the end of the inning. It was ruled that Hicks had checked his swing, and the at-bat continued. The next pitch was lined by Hicks into center field to score Frazier.

Brett Gardner sent a dribbler of a single back up the middle to set up Aaron Judge, who delivered the haymaker in the inning by lining a two-run double that one-hopped the wall in left field. It put the Yankees ahead 4-0 and ended Bauer's night.

Urshela's puzzlingly rough night wasn't over, though. In the bottom of the third, two walks and a double off Mike Clevinger loaded the bases with two outs for Gardner. Clevinger induced a routine grounder to Urshela, who looked to second before turning to first and firing his throw high enough to pull Carlos Santana off the base, allowing the fifth unearned run of the game to score.

The Indians chipped away against Yankees starter Luis Severino using the long ball. In the fourth inning, Santana drilled a two-run homer to center field and an inning later, Roberto Perez followed with a solo shot to right field to make it 5-3.

That was as close as the Indians would get to pulling off the second five-run comeback this series. In the sixth, a throwing error by pitcher Danny Salazar eventually led to a sacrifice fly on which Frazier took advantage of Jason Kipnis' arm in center field. Gardner hit a shallow fly ball but Kipnis' throw was too late to get the sliding Frazier for the sixth unearned run of the game. The Indians finished with four errors in the game. An inning later, Gary Sanchez hit a solo home run off Bryan Shaw to push the Yankees' lead to 7-3.

And with all of it, the Yankees kept their season alive and staved off elimination to force Game 5 in Cleveland.

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(c)2017 Akron Beacon Journal (Akron, Ohio)

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Chicago Tribune

CHICAGO — A calmness persisted in the Cubs' dugout Monday despite four errors, no hits for 6 1/3 innings and a baserunning gaffe.

“When you make mistakes as a team, the mantra is 'So what? Now what?' ” Ben Zobrist said.

The Cubs were able to overcome their mistakes with superb defensive plays and timely hitting that brought them one step closer to advancing beyond the National League Division Series.

Anthony Rizzo's bloop single with two outs in the eighth inning provided the winning touch as Cubs rallied to beat the Nationals 2-1 to take a 2-1 lead in this best-of-five NLDS.

They hope to clinch the series Tuesday when Jake Arrieta, making his first start since Sept. 26 because of lingering discomfort in his right hamstring, opposes Tanner Roark.

“We know that having our home crowd behind us at Wrigley (is important),” Zobrist said. “We anticipate it being an exciting environment.”

The press box rocked after pinch-hitter Albert Almora Jr. singled to score Zobrist with the tying run in the seventh, and a crowd of 42,445 paused briefly before erupting when Rizzo's bloop fell between three defenders to score pinch-runner Leonys Martin with the winning run.

Television cameras caught Rizzo screaming “respect me, respect me” after Nationals manager Dusty Baker summoned left-hander Oliver Perez to pitch to Rizzo with first base open instead of walking Rizzo and using Ryan Madson to pitch to Willson Contreras.

“I want to make guys pay,” Rizzo said.

Said Baker: “I don't care. I would have screamed, too.”

Rizzo and his teammates were elated after overcoming Max Scherzer's no-hit bid. The Nationals ace was pulled after allowing a double to Zobrist on his 98th pitch in his first appearance since tweaking his right hamstring on Sept. 30.

Almora was happy to contribute and take the attention off teammate Kyle Schwarber, who dropped a Daniel Murphy fly near the left field foul line and booted the carom that allowed Murphy to advance to third and subsequently score the game's first run on Ryan Zimmerman's double in the seventh.

“I did it for the whole team, but more for (Jose) Quintana and Schwarber, to help them in that situation,” Almora said.

Cubs manager Joe Maddon pulled Quintana after Schwarber's twin gaffes despite his only allowing two hits. Zimmerman immediately smacked a double off Pedro Strop to give the Nationals their only lead.

During the pitching change, Schwarber walked toward center and received support from fellow outfielders Jon Jay and Jason Heyward.

“It's a tough spot, and we know he wants to come through,” Heyward said. “We all do.”

Both Heyward and Jay had made sterling defensive plays earlier.

During their 17-5 run that started after the Brewers swept them three games in September, the Cubs have spoken openly about their resiliency and confidence that started when they overcame a 3-1 deficit to win the 2016 World Series.

Those traits have persisted in their victories in games the Nationals' Stephen Strasburg and Scherzer started. Each of them flirted with no-hit bids entering the sixth inning of their respective starts.

Monday's triumph was more challenging because of the four errors (Quintana, Zobrist and Schwarber's two) — equaling their most in a postseason game since Game 2 of the 2008 NLDS against the Dodgers.

“It really does say a lot about us,” Kris Bryant said. “We're not going to get down if things aren't going our way early. There's just something about this team.

“We turn it on later in games. It has been pretty special to be a part of these two wins.”

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(c)2017 Chicago Tribune

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Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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